I Don't Mind
by Kitty O
Summary: Coda to "Last of the Time Lords". The Doctor asks Jack if he'd like to travel in the TARDIS again.


Jack was looking at the old cameras when the Doctor came and found him.

"What are you doing in here?" The Doctor asked from the doorway, alerting Jack of his presence as he sauntered into the room, hands in his pockets.

Jack didn't know for a fact that he was doing that, of course—Jack was facing the cameras. But if he knew this new Doctor at all (and he thought he did), than that was what he was going to be doing. Jack turned around.

Indeed, the Doctor had those new glasses on, his nose turned up, his hands in his pockets and his coat pushed behind him. Jack grinned.

"Taking a moment to breathe," Jack said. "First time in a year. You're back already."

"I am," the Doctor said. "I came back for everyone—where are they?"

"Gathering their things," Jack said. "After a year, they kind of spread out."

"But not you," the Doctor muttered.

"I was too tied up to settle. I got the five-star suite!" Jack laughed, hoping that if he could laugh it would become funny.

The Doctor didn't crack a smile.

Jack looked down. He fiddled with his suspenders. "It was a hard year for them," Jack mused. "Martha too. You'll have to let her rest before you take her off on another adventure."

Martha hadn't said anything to the Doctor—she'd been too busy reuniting with her family. But the Doctor had seen her, and he thought he knew, even if Jack didn't, that there wouldn't be any more adventures. Not for a long time, at least. He could pretend (he _would_ pretend) there would be, but he knew the truth. It might not have occurred to Jack, though—Jack could never even imagine leaving the Doctor by choice, just because he was ready to move on.

The Doctor may have felt the tiniest flash of shame, but if he did, he hid it well.

"What about you?" the Doctor asked. "You don't need to rest?"

Jack blinked at him, confusion written on a handsome face. Jack smiled. (Jack smiled when he was confused. He also smiled when he was angry, and happy, and perhaps even when he was sad.) "I might, but I'm not going off to the see the universe."

The Doctor shuffled. Jack looked him up and down—his last Doctor had never shuffled. That Doctor had always kept his feet locked, so as to never look unsure. That was the Doctor that Jack had missed for a century—but he liked this Doctor too. He was… what was the word for it? Foxy, maybe.

The captain smothered another grin at his lanky friend's expense.

"Ah," said the Doctor. "Well… you could be. If you wanted to."

Jack turned to look at the broken cameras again, his heart rate shooting through the roof. If the Doctor could tell, hopefully he would think it was because this was the room that featured in his nightmares for a year. Where the cameras broadcasted the defeated Doctor, where the windows showed destruction… Where the Master brought Jack when he was bored…

"I don't know what you mean, Doctor. My vortex manipulator isn't that good."

"I meant you could come with me, if you wanted."

There was a pause as the words sank in, and Jack looked down, his eyes closing. "Why, Doctor, are you asking me out on a date?"

The Doctor remained silent, letting Jack take another breath and prepare himself.

Jack looked at the Doctor from the side of his eyes. "You said I was wrong."

"Yes, I did."

"You said I was a Fact, that even the TARDIS hates me."

"I didn't say _hate_, exactly."

"You said I bothered you… You're prejudiced."

"Yes."

"That's why you left me behind."

"Yes."

"Why are you asking if I want to come with you again, then?"

The Doctor sighed. He scratched his neck and leant against the railway, tilting his head as he prepared to speak. Jack watched him steadily. There was a whole world of new Doctor-quirks to get to know. What with the Doctor's recent advanced age, Jack hadn't yet met them all.

"You remember earlier, when I told you that man wasn't my responsibility, so I couldn't stop him from using a gun. You said 'And I am?'" The Doctor's mimic of Jack was humorous but Jack didn't smile for once, just listened.

"I remember. At the end of the universe."

"Well, you were right."

"How so?"

"You were my responsibility. When someone travels with me, it is my ship and therefore they are my responsibility. You wouldn't have been killed by the Daleks if I hadn't been there."

"Rose was the one who brought me back."

"She used my TARDIS, and besides, she didn't remember anything afterward." The Doctor cocked his head.

Jack blew out a breath and his eyebrow went up. "Did she know you left me?"

"No."

Jack's heart leapt a little. He hadn't been entirely abandoned then—just forgotten. "Well, Doctor," Jack laughed, "if this is you apologizing…"

The Doctor cut him off. "This is me saying that you should have been told what happened earlier."

A pause.

The Doctor continued, standing up and walking towards Jack. "I saw you, you know, right before you grabbed onto the TARDIS. I took off anyway, even though I recognized you."

Jack looked at him with no trace of merriment in his face. "You wanted to leave me holding on to nothing."

"I didn't want to explain," the Doctor said, no apology in his eyes.

"So you aren't apologizing for leaving me. You are just saying that you should have explained why you were abandoning me before you did."

The Doctor's eyebrows drew together and he drifted away from Jack. "Something to that effect."

Jack grinned. "I'll take it."

The Doctor nodded. He'd known Jack would. Jack had waited for a century just to reconnect. Jack might have been the one with the gun, but he had a heart more forgiving than even the Doctor's.

"But this time," the Doctor said, "you can come."

Jack shook his head. "No, you apologized. It's fine."

"I don't mind."

"Doctor, my existence bothers you, remember?" Jack said it easily enough.

"I had a year to get used to it," said the Doctor with a bright smile.

"The TARDIS went to the end of the universe to shake me off."

"Hissy fit, you know how it is. She'll get used to it as well—you destroyed the paradox machine. I'm sure she likes you a bit more now."

Jack grinned and shook his head.

"I really don't mind," the Doctor said. "Two immortal beings in one spaceship, what do you say?" He grinned in anticipation.

Jack pushed his lips together. "I say we'd kill each other." He looked up. And then back down. And then in the Doctor's eyes. "Doctor," he asked with more gravity than he usually spared. "Do you want me to come with you? Or are you inviting me because I want to come?"

"I want you to come, of course!" The Doctor had his it-will-be-brilliant face on.

Jack's smile came back with alacrity. "Don't lie to a liar," he said. "The thought makes you dizzy. I'm still too wrong."

This time, the Doctor didn't respond, just watched Jack with eyes still grieving an old friend as the undead ex-Time Agent turned towards the door. "I bet the other s are ready to go. This place gives me the creeps. I don't want to hang around when we don't have to. Hey, Tish!"

"I don't mind," the Doctor said at last, but though he had no doubt that Jack heard, the man pretended not to. He just kept walking.

And as he walked, the Fact's World War II coat not there to billow as it should, the Doctor felt a slight breeze in his mind, with the faint scent of a memory wafting along—with that walk still ahead of the Doctor, and that flirtatious smile. And on Jack's arm, a blonde shape – just nineteen – laughing so hard her eyes were closed. So fresh in the memory but so far away.

"I really, really wouldn't mind," the Doctor whispered, but Jack was no longer around to hear him.

* * *

**A/N: This is set after they defeat the Master and before the Doctor is with Martha and Jack and asks Jack again to come along, saying he wouldn't mind. I thought Jack and the Doctor had a bit that needed to be cleared up, and the Doctor's lack of apology towards Jack was really bothering me. This is the first time I've ever written Ten or Jack, and my second Doctor Who fanfiction, so don't be too hard on me. Characterization takes a while to get used to.**


End file.
